


A Wish And I'm Gone

by casesandcapitals



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Elena is already dead, HIV/AIDS, Historical Inaccuracy, M/M, Off-screen drug use, Period-Typical Homophobia, brief suicidal idealization, has a nice ending, none of the main characters have aids, off-screen character deaths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-02-10 01:17:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12900864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casesandcapitals/pseuds/casesandcapitals
Summary: Gerard is 17 years old in 1922. Frank is 17 years old in 1984. They both just want to be somewhere else, somewhere better.





	1. 1922

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to do heavy time-period research because then this would never get posted, so enjoy this slightly accurate portrayal. Also, wow I'm posting again. Wild.

Gerard glanced at his reflection but dropped his gaze immediately. His lip was busted and he was certainly going to have a black eye.

Soaking a piece of gauze with rubbing alcohol, he took a steadying breath before pressing it to his chin. It burned, but he was still bleeding from where he had hit the ground and how could he explain this away if his scraps got infected and he ended up in the hospital? He didn’t know how he was going to explain his injuries anyway.

His grandmother would have held him, shushed his apologies. She would have promised him that once they had the money, they would move to the continent where Gerard would find a modicum of acceptance. But she was gone now and Gerard was left with a disgusted father and an ashamed mother. Maybe this would be the final straw and his father would finally call the authorities.

The gauze was bloody when Gerard pulled it away, speckled with dirt from the ground that had lodged in the scrape. Sighing, he tossed the mess away and reached for another piece of gauze, only to realize he had just used the last one.

“Oh, damn,” he muttered.

The medicine cabinet didn’t hold any more and Gerard started to panic. His parents would be furious when they found out he had used up all the gauze. He racked his brain, hoping a solution would fall into it. He couldn’t afford to go to the shop; the boys that attacked him had emptied his pockets. Maybe there would be a few coins in his parents’ room and he could replace the gauze, and then replace the coins?

He left the rubbing alcohol out, not bothering to clean the drips of blood on the sink as he rushed out of the bathroom and down the hall.

His father was at work and his mother was running errands; he only had another hour or so to fix this and pretend it hadn’t happened.

His parents’ room smelled like his mother’s perfume from years of applying it every morning. Their beds were made, their night stands neat and orderly. Sun was streaming through the window, landing on the carpet and warming the room.

Everything was in its place, except for Gerard.

His panic started to be replaced with guilt as he crossed the room to look through his mother’s night stand. A bible and a rosary. A few letters from far away family members. No coins.

His father’s night stand held even less. Just a photo of his unit from the great war alongside his purple heart medal.

 _Of course,_ Gerard thought. There might be gauze packed away with his father’s rucksack from the war. He had stored it when he returned and never bothered to open it again, he wouldn’t even realize Gerard had searched through it.

Gerard rushed to the wardrobe and threw the doors open. Sitting at the bottom, alongside his parents’ Sunday shoes, was the rucksack. Gerard pulled it out and set it on the floor; it was heavier than he expected.

Gerard opened it with shaking hands. His heart rate was picking up and he knew if he was caught going through his father’s army things, he would get sent away for sure. His dad never talked about the war and Gerard could only assume it was bad.

Peering inside the bag, the first thing he saw was his father’s uniform, crumpled into a ball and stuffed to the side. Gerard started searching through the odds and ends, hoping to find a leftover store of medical supplies. He couldn’t see into every corner though, and grabbed the uniform and gently started pulling it out to make room. It was heavy; heavier than Gerard thought a uniform should be, and as he got his hands around it he realized there was something solid wrapped inside.

He forgot about the gauze as he set the ball of cloth on the carpet and began unwrapping it. The sleeves had been tied tight around the whole thing and Gerard spent a frantic moment digging his fingernails in, loosening it.

When it came untied, the uniform shirt fell open, revealing the stained pants folded inside, cushioning a beautiful gold vase.

Gerard’s breath caught. The light from the window seemed to shimmer around the vase, highlighting a strange inscription that wrapped around the widest part. Gerard stroked a hesitant finger along the raised characters, wondering what language it could be, where it had come from, how his father had come to own it.

Picking it up, Gerard could only assume it was real, solid gold. _It must be worth a fortune,_ Gerard thought. Why had his father never sold it? They could live richly for the rest of their lives with the money they’d get with this amount of gold. Maybe he’d forgotten it was there? It was hidden away with the rest of his ignored army things anyway. Maybe Gerard would sell it and give his parents a heap of money with enough left over for him to go and live on the continent.

His hands shaking with excitement now, he hefted the vase and noticed for the first time that it was stoppered up with a gold top, inscribed with more strange characters. Without pausing to wonder, he pried the top off.

A flash of light startled him and he fell from his knees onto his back. The vase hit the carpet with a thunk and Gerard scrambled back up to make sure it hadn’t been damaged.  
The vase was laying on its side, still shimmering in the sunlight, and the top lay a foot away, but purple smoke was pouring out of the vase, curling across the carpet and spiraling in on itself. Gerard watched in horror as the smoke condensed and, with another startlingly bright flash of light, a woman appeared.

She was unlike any woman Gerard had ever seen. Her skin and hair, her eyes and teeth and fingernails and clothes; everything about her was a shimmering gold. Even the air around her seemed to shine.

As Gerard watched, the gold woman took a deep breath, stretched her arms above her head, then shook out her long hair, trailing sparkles with every movement. She took a second deep breath and looked around.

Her golden gaze landed on Gerard, sitting on the carpet, shocked, mouth hanging open.

“What is your name?” she demanded in a voice that sounded like the tinkling of a spring brook but felt as heavy as lead in Gerard’s ears.

“M-my name’s Gerard,” he rasped.

“Gerard,” she repeated. “Why are you bleeding, Gerard?”

“What? Oh!” His hand shot up to his mouth, where his lip was already swollen, and his scraped chin that was still bleeding sluggishly.

“You need my help,” she stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest, trails of gold sparkles appearing and fading in their wake.

“I- I do?”

“You would not have found me otherwise.”

“I was looking for gauze,” Gerard said. “The vase- _your_ vase was wrapped up in my father’s uniform.”

The woman’s golden eyes swept from Gerard to the rucksack and the crumpled uniform.

“Ah, so he kept it. Shame on him.”

“My father?” Gerard wondered.

Her eyes darted back to him, taking in his appearance a second time, more thoroughly.

“You do look a bit like him,” she admitted. “Though softer. That would be your mother’s influence, yes?”

“I- What?”

“The last man to release me said he had a wife and son waiting for him at home,” she explained. “He wished to go back to them. It seemed a pure enough wish, so I granted it.” She paused, pursing her lips. “What has gone wrong that his son now calls upon me?”

“You granted my father a wish?” Gerard gasped.

“He wished to return home,” she nodded.

“But, but he came home because he was wounded!” Gerard exclaimed. “He got shot!”

“And then he returned home to his wife and son,” the woman agreed, nodding again. “That was his wish, and I granted it.”  
Gerard was speechless.

“So, bleeding boy, what is your wish?”

“My wish?”

“Yes, your wish. Let me grant it so I can go back to sleep.”

“You… You can grant me a wish? Any wish?” Gerard demanded, crawling up onto his knees.

“Some things are beyond my power,” the golden woman admitted. “Wish, and I shall tell you if it can be done.”

“I wish my grandmother was still alive,” Gerard said immediately.

“No, I cannot.”

Even with just a split second of hope, for that wish to be dashed, Gerard felt the crushing despair of his grandmother’s death all over again.

“Something else?”

Gerard settled back on his heels, swallowing passed the sudden lump in his throat. The only thing he could think of wanting, beside his Grandmother, was to be away, living on the continent where his grandmother had said he would find happiness and even the smallest amount of acceptance.

“I wish I was away,” Gerard whispered.

“Granted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo if you spot a typo or an error, please lemme know in the comments so I can fix it. I didn't beta this lol


	2. 1984

Frank stumbled down an alley, not caring who saw, not caring if he was followed.

What was the point? He had no money or valuables for anyone to steal, and he was starting to think that being alive wasn’t something he cared much about.

Frank collapsed against the brick wall at the back of the alley, far enough away from the road that he could barely hear the cars rumble passed. Curling up, he pressed his forehead against his knees and started to sob.

When Jepha died, they had gotten through it, all of them together. They at least had the money for a small funeral. They at least had each other.

But Quinn? AIDS was a death sentence and they had all known it. Quinn had managed to keep his chin up for the last 8 months and Frank knew it was mostly for his and Bert’s sake, but losing him was like losing the sunshine.

They barely had him in the ground before Bert went out and followed after.

Heroin overdose, the cops said. Frank believed it.

And now it was just him and there was no point to any of it.

His insides were cold, like his heart had stopped beating, like he had swallowed a brick of ice. He dug his nails into his scalp and just cried.

The idea of going back to the shitty apartment they had called home was… no. There was no way Frank was strong enough to face those empty rooms.

He could crash on a dozen different couches around New York, but did he want to? Did he want to push on and keep fighting?

Half the people he called friends were sick or dying, the rest were too busy getting stoned to give a fuck about him and his grief.

If Frank died, plenty of people would miss him. But in the way you missed someone when everyone was dropping like flies.

_“Yeah, Iero died too.”_

_“No shit? How’d he go?”_

_“Don’t know, just up and died.”_

_"Fuck man…"_

There was someone new to mourn every fucking day. It wouldn’t be like losing his makeshift family. There was no one left who loved him.

Frank stayed curled up, holding his head and crying until the tears ran out. Until his breathing slowed and he started thinking about walking off the closest bridge.

The sun must’ve set, because Frank suddenly realized the rest of him was as cold as his insides. The numbness he had felt evaporated all at once and his muscles groaned at how tense he had been holding himself.

He shifted and felt a loose brick scrape his back through his t-shirt. Turning halfway around, he grabbed at the brick, wanted to toss it just to break something, but when he pulled it free, a glimmer stilled his hand.

There was something hidden in the wall, something gold. He dropped the loose brick and dug his fingers around the one above it, prying and tugging until the old, crumbling cement let it go free.

His fingers were scraped and bleeding now but his mind was one-track and set on finding out what was hiding behind this wall in a random alley.

Night was truly fallen by the time Frank managed to pry two more bricks free and wrap his hand around a golden vase. It sparkled in the dark and Frank had to blink a few times before he could properly make out the odd symbols etched around the case and around the stopper at the top.

He smeared a bit of blood on the gold as he dug his ruined nails around the stopper.

A rush of purple smoke caused Frank to drop the vase and fall away, smacking his head on the pavement.

He stayed down as the purple smoke solidified above him and took the form of a beautiful golden woman who lit the darkness with a glow that seemed to emanate from inside her.

The woman stretched her arms and took a deep breath, casually examining her surroundings. Her gold eyes fell on Frank, who was laying on his back, mouth gaping.

“You’ve been crying, boy,” she spoke. “Why?” Her voice seemed to boom and whisper at the same time and Frank’s pulse kicked up a beat.

“I- I-” he stuttered.

“Tell me what has hurt you.”

Frank closed his eyes and dropped his head back against the ground. “Everyone I care about is dead.”

“And you want them back? This I cannot do.” She spoke as easily as if they were discussing the weather.

Frank decided he must have hit his head a little too hard when he fell, or maybe the grief had driven him insane. It didn’t matter much anymore.

“I wish I was dead, too,” he whispered.

“I’ve never met a soul who truly wished for death,” the golden woman told him. “They only want the pain to stop.”

The glow from the impossible golden woman shone through Frank’s closed eyelids. He squeezed them shut, hard, to make it go away.

“Yeah? Maybe.”

“What wish could I grant that would make your pain ease?”

Frank rolled over onto his side and curled up, wrapping his arms around his stomach.

“I just wanna be gone,” he admitted.

“That, I can do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with the previous chapter, this was not beta'd so if you see a mistake shout it out in the comments!


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